Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Educational Environments And Children's Physical Activity And Sedentary Behaviors, Nathan R. Tokarek

Theses and Dissertations

Children and adolescents spend the majority of their day engaged in sedentary behaviors (SB), while also not meeting physical activity (PA) recommendations. The failure to develop and maintain health enhancing behaviors from a young age may impact an individual throughout their life. With children and adolescents spending a large proportion of their waking hours in a school setting, the educational environment presents an opportunity in which children and adolescents’ PA and SB can be positively influenced. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation was to explore how children and adolescent’s school time PA and SB are associated with the educational setting, …

Anxiety And Social Withdrawal Among Children: Associations With Emotion Awareness And Emotion Regulation Strategy Use At The Intra- And Interpersonal Levels, Janae Ellen Teer

Theses and Dissertations

Anxiety and social withdrawal are two frequently experienced internalizing conditions among children. These early-onset challenges are associated with numerous maladaptive outcomes in the academic, social, and psychological domains (Levitt & Merrill, 2009; Long, 2018; Sanchez et al., 2018; Shernoff et al., 2017). While identifying anxious and socially withdrawn children in the classroom is difficult as symptoms generally occur internally, distinguishing between the conditions is perhaps more challenging as the two are closely associated, oftentimes overlapping constructs (Barzeva et al., 2019; Rubin et al., 2009). Particularly, it is unclear whether anxiety and social withdrawal are similarly or differently associated with key …

A Mixed Methods Evaluation Of An Intersectional Bystander Program Against Sexual Violence Using The Integrated Model Of Behavioral Prediction Within A Cluster Randomized Control Trial, Rose Hennessy

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Sexual violence is a critical public health problem that is particularly salient on college campuses. Bystander intervention is a prevention approach that teaches students who are not directly affected by a situation to take action to help others. Research is needed to understand the relationship between bystander training and changes in behavior to intervene against sexual violence, racism, and unhealthy alcohol outcomes.

Methods: A cluster randomized waitlist control trial was used to evaluate the bystander program Our School TAKES ACTION. Upper-level undergraduate students were randomized by housing floor from buildings of a private, midwestern university. Data was collected in …

Dialect Use, Language Abilities, And Emergent Literacy Skills Of Prekindergarten Children Who Speak African American English, Erika Rose Baldwin

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the complex relationship between spoken language and emergent literacy skills for children who speak African American English (AAE). Therefore, this study examined children’s language proficiency, dialect use, and emergent literacy skills at the beginning of Head Start preschool and throughout the entire academic year.

Methods. This study analyzed scores from a database of 120 preschool children who spoke AAE. Data included narrative retells of the wordless picture book Frog Where Are You? that were transcribed utilizing Systematic Analysis of Language Transcript (SALT) Software. Narrative retells were then …

Trans In Higher Ed: Understanding The Experiences Of Transgender And Nonbinary College Students, Katherine Cochran

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study sought to further explore the lived experiences of trans and nonbinary college students, in attempts to address the empirical gap contributed to by conflation of sexual and gender minorities’ experiences in research. The focus is on the lived experiences of trans and nonbinary college students to explore identity development, their experiences on campus and with mental health services, the nature of help-seeking behaviors, and their recommendations for mental health professionals, allies, and college staff. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews addressing the following research questions: (1) What are the lived experiences of trans and nonbinary college students; …

The Assessment Of Technology Adoption Interventions And Outcome Achievement Related To The Use Of A Clinical Research Data Warehouse, Katie A. Mccarthy

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: While funding for research has declined since 2004, the need for rapid, innovative, and lifesaving clinical and translational research has never been greater due to the rise in chronic health conditions, which have resulted in lower life expectancy and higher rates of mortality and adverse outcomes. Finding effective diagnostic and treatment methods to address the complex challenges in individual and population health will require a team science approach, creating the need for multidisciplinary collaboration among practitioners and researchers.

To address this need, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) created the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program. The CTSA …

A Preliminary Evaluation Of An Academic Support Program, James Colin Bumby

Theses and Dissertations

The responsibility for graduating students is a school responsibility. A large urban Midwestern research university created the Nursing Endeavor Program (NEP) to ensure that students from underserved minorities, first generation, and/or low income are enabled to graduate successfully. There is a 100% retention rate for the period from admission to the nursing major in the junior year; however, in the pre-nursing years, the retention rate is only 50%. The role transition from pre-nursing student to student nurse can be challenging and stressful. A qualitative phenomenographic research approach was utilized to identify the factors facilitating and the factors hindering this transition. …

Understanding Public Health Professional Socialization And Professional Identity Formation Experiences, Jennifer M. Freiheit

Theses and Dissertations

Public health is in unstable times with funding decreasing, an exodus of retirees, and a paradigm shift with emergency preparedness and response critically changing the identity of the profession. Public health is at a grave trigger point where if something is not done, the entire field may be in jeopardy of caving in to consolidations, poor succession planning, and a field that cannot work toward the health of the public if they themselves are not operating well. It is commonly accepted that orientation practices exist in public health agencies, but the orientations that currently exist lack transfer to full socialization …

The Impact Of Stand-Biased Desks On After-School Physical Activity Behaviors In Children, Nathan Tokarek

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess changes in after-school time spent performing sedentary behavior (SB), light intensity physical activity (LPA), and moderate to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) among elementary school children in response to the introduction of stand-biased desks in the classroom. Thirty-one 6th grade participants randomly assigned by their teacher to a traditional (CON) or stand-biased (INT) desk provided complete accelerometer data. After-school PA and SB were measured on four consecutive weekdays at baseline and 10-weeks. Wilcoxon Rank Sum Tests were used to detect significant differences (p<0.10) in changes in the proportion of after-school wear time performing SB and PA between groups. Results suggested no significant differences in changes in after-school time performing SB (p=0.770), LPA (p=0.740), or MVPA (p=0.470). Significant differences in the change in moderate PA (INT: -1.4%; CON: -0.2%, p=0.093) were detected. Stand-biased desks were not detrimental to children’s after-school PA and SB.

Examining The Lived Experience Of Caregivers Learning A Home Program From A Pediatric Occupational Therapist, Michelle Finet

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experiences of family caregivers as they learned a home program from an occupational therapist for their child. Gaining information from the caregiver on experiences with patient education may enable therapists to develop an understanding of the needs of caregivers during the educational process that occurs when a therapist is giving the caregiver a home program. Meeting the learning needs of the caregivers may possibly reduce the amount of overall therapy needed by the child. This phenomenological approach sought to answer the following research questions: (a) what are the lived experiences …

The Influence Of Transcultural Humility Simulation Development Activities On The Cultural Competence Of Baccalaureate Nursing Students, Teresa Hamilton

Theses and Dissertations

One way to mitigate health disparities in the provision of nursing care and impact social justice with vulnerable populations is the development of cultural competence. Although addressed in nursing curricula, gaps in how to best address cultural competence remain. A study was undertaken to determine whether participation in a researcher-designed intervention, entitled Transcultural Humility Simulation development, based on components of Campinha-Bacote’s model with an emphasis on “becoming” culturally competent, improved cultural competence in graduating baccalaureate nursing students. A longitudinal, descriptive, quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest comparison group design using embedded mixed methods was used. A total of 57 student participants from one baccalaureate …

Reading Comprehension And Nursing Education: A Missing Variable Associated With Nursing Student Attrition?, Debra L. Lajoie

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

READING COMPREHENSION AND NURSING EDUCATION:

A MISSING VARIABLE ASSOCIATED WITH

STUDENT ATTRITION?

by

Debra L. Lajoie, MSN

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

December, 2013

Under the Supervision of Susan Dean-Baar, PhD, RN, FAAN

The goals of nursing faculty and administrators are to select students most capable of completing the nursing program and to provide academic support needed for program completion. However, despite stronger entrance requirements, educators are still baffled by the persistent attrition from nursing education programs. The purpose of this study was to describe and compare the level of reading comprehension of two groups of students, a pre-nursing student …